Barbara Joanne (Jones) Erickson

Barbara Erickson, 85, of Bemidji, MN died Friday, July 20, 2018 at her home.

A Celebration of Life will be 2:00 p.m., Saturday, August 4, 2018 at the Olson-Schwartz Funeral Home. Family will greet friends one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.

Barbara Joann Jones was born on July 3, 1933 on the family farm near the town of Larrabee in northwest Iowa. Her mother and grandmother had been born in the same farmhouse where she was born. She grew up on the farm and graduated from Paullina (Iowa) High School in 1949.  She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Education from the University of Colorado at Boulder,CO.  She worked as a substitute teacher at Bemidji High School in the 1980’s.  In the 90’s, she worked as a teacher of Learning Disabled Students at Eloy High School in Eloy, Arizona.

Barbara was married to Gerhardt E. Koehlmoos in 1951 in Paullina, Iowa, and the marriage was blessed with 3 children.  In November of 1966, Gerhardt died in a car accident. Two years later, Barbara married John E. Halvarson in Denver, CO. In 1973, the couple moved to Bemidji, MN.  Six years later, Mr. Halvarson died in a car accident also. Barbara later married Leroy Erickson, who passed away in 1997 of a heart attack.

After Leroy’s death, Barbara stayed in Arizona for a few years but eventually moved back to Colorado where she lived near her sister.  In 2009 she was invited to move back to Bemidji by her step-daughters . The last years of her life she lived by herself surrounded by the loving support of her Bemidji family.

Barbara Erickson was preceded in death by her parents; Allyn and Vivien Jones, three husbands; Gerhardt E.Koehlmoos, John E. Halvarson and Henry Leroy Erickson, a son-in-law, Steve Reierson and a grandson, Joseph Koehlmoos.

Barbara Erickson is survived by her sister, Anita Alexander of Brighton CO, sons, Allyn Koehlmoos (Marilyn) of Fargo ND and Gregory Koehlmoos (Kathleen) of Bemidji, MN; daughters, Cinda (Harold) Dirksen, Vicki (Mick) Trepanier, Debbie Reierson, and Annette (Rick) Schulke, all of Bemidji, sixteen wonderful grandchildren, and many beloved great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be directed to the Beltrami County Humane Society.

Online guestbook at www.OlsonSchwartzFuneralHome.com

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Barbara Joanne (Jones) Erickson, please visit our floral store.